Energy is essential for humanity to develop and thrive. In 2015, the new Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by 193 countries, included for the first time a target to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, underscoring a new level of political agreement on the importance of access to modern energy services. At the same time, the declining cost of decentralised renewables, increased access to affordable energyefficient appliances and the use of mobile platforms are changing the way we think about providing energy access. It is against this backdrop that the IEA produced this Special Report, part of its flagship World Energy Outlook (WEO) series.

This report:

- Expands and updates the WEO’s country-by-country electricity and clean cooking access database, and assesses the status for all developing countries, reviewing recent trends and policy efforts up to 2016

- Presents a global and regional electricity and clean cooking access outlook to 2030, with a dedicated chapter on sub-Saharan Africa

- Provides a pathway for achieving access to modern energy for all by 2030, identifying policy priorities, detailing investment needs, and the role that decentralised and on-grid solutions may play

- Analyses how energy development can unleash economic growth in sectors such as agriculture, and explores how energy access intersects with other issues such as gender, health and climate change